Natural Climbing Areas

Posted by Danger on

Mar 29th, 2017

Season: Spring and Fall are consistently good, but Winter can be great, just check the forecast before heading out. Summer is hot but mostly dry– bring a swimsuit and seek the shade.

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Description: Long Dong(Dragon’s Lair or Dragon’s Cave) is Taiwan’s premier outdoor climbing area - superb sandstone sport and trad climbing on the NorthEast coast of Taiwan.

Accessible easily from Taipei, Hsinchu and northern parts of Taiwan, approaches range from quick and easy to 30 minute hikes over rough terrain and sketchy traverses, but you’re rewarded for your hard work with varied climbing on firm sandstone that provides great friction and gear placements.

The sapphire blue waters, the sea breeze and beautiful rock formations make for a breathtaking backdrop that complements the excellent climbing.

Click on the Entrance you want to approach above and use Google Maps for directions

By Bus from Taipei: Right outside of Main Station Exit M1, buy a ticket from to Long Dong Harbour(龍洞港）. Take Kingbus 1811 or 1812. Buses leave daily at 8:50 and 10:20 in the morning. Don’t be late. The bus ride takes about 1:10-1:30.

For School Gate entrance, get off at “龍洞港“(Long Dong Harbour) bus stop, walk down the bamboo stairs into the village main road, and walk right into the crag.

For Backdoor entrance, get off at the next stop(Officially “龍洞南口”, but if you ask politely, the bus driver may drop you off right after the tunnel.) and walk back towards the temple. Follow the small temple road through to the parking lot, and then descend the stone steps on your right leading down to the gazebo to go to Backdoor .

Township weather report- This is for the district that Long Dong is in, but is more detailed and shows weather forecasts throughout the day.

Rebolt status: Because of seaside corrosion, some routes are not safe to climb. The Guidebook does a decent job of explaining which routes are safe or not but since there has been significant rebolting since its publication in 2012, we also recommend supplementing it with Guidebook+, our local route tracker.

Accomodations: As camping is technically not allowed, the most convenient options are:

MountainProject.com - Pretty good resource about Long Dong, with transportation, info about what gear to bring, and basic info about crags. Lacks depth and coverage of the guidebook but enough for a day trip.

Climbstone.com - Well organized, basic info on Long Dong, including how to get there, what to bring. The site is run by Matt Robertson, author of the Rock Climbing Taiwan guidebook.

Directions: From Beitou Metro station, take the 小25（S25） or 230 in the Yangmingshan（陽明山） direction. Get off at stop “DaHuangZui(大磺嘴).” Walk down the road and you will see after about 5 minutes a yellow sign on your left – this is the access trail. Follow the trail up to the right. Alternatively, you can go by bus to the stop “Dunxu High School of Industry and Commerce” and walk around 700M downhill to the trailhead.

Notes: Short technical climbing on Yangmingshan, mostly face climbing. With beautiful scenery and hot springs nearby, BCC is a nice, convenient crag right outside Taipei. It is also among the earliest climbing areas in Taiwan. Be warned though – the grading here is very hard and most of the climbs here aren’t easy. Beginners may have a tough time adjusting compared to Long Dong. Approach is short from the main mountain road.

The rock is Volcanic Andesite. Holds are much smaller than at Long Dong. Climbs here can get quite technical and range from about 5 to 9m high. Difficulty goes from 5.8 up to hard 5.12d. Expect crimps, pockets, cracks… and more (slopey) crimps. If you have a pad there are some decent boulder problems to tackle.

Hike to the top of the cliff to find glue-ins for top rope anchors on some climbs(see pictures). On other routes you will have to set up your own anchors using trees, bushes, etc.

Gear needed: Any Rope 30m or more is fine. Slings/webbing, lockers to set up top rope anchors. Something to pad the rope over an edge is a good idea too. Trad climbing is a possibility on a number of routes but can get bold at times. Tricams have been recommended.

If you want to use natural anchors you will need a LOT of static cord or webbing since most of the solid trees are about 5-20 meters away from the cliff.

Topo:

Ron’s Taiwan Climbing Page- a guidebook with Topos. Ron translated and enhanced an old guide originally created by Milk, a veteran of the Taiwan Climbing scene.

Taipei Climbing Walls

Posted by Danger on

Mar 28th, 2014

Description: staffed by good climbers, this Sports center climbing center has a pair of 15m tall outdoor walls, as well as a small but well maintained indoor bouldering section.Offers: Sport Climbing & Top-Roping up to 15m, Bouldering up to 3m

Location: 台北市內湖區洲仔街12號Schedule: 9AM to 10PMPhone:02-26560052Price: Bouldering $50. Lead Climbing $200. With a special discount card (好爬卡) you get a 20% off for 10 entries.

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Notes: The best roped climbing in Taipei, Neihu has a near-vertical(5 degree overhang)wall, as well as a seriously steep overhang lead wall with a wicked roof section. Managed by a top setting team, the routes here on both walls are consistently high quality.

Posted by Danger on

Mar 29th, 2012

Region: Taipei

Description: The GongGuan wall, as it is known, is a bolted 4 meter high “bouldering” wall located in the riverside park near the GongGuan area. The landing is firm rubber tile, ok until the red line but for serious bouldering a pad is recommended.

Location:Outdoor Wall Map Despite the name, the wall is located closer to GongGuan around NTU

Offers : Bouldering (~4m), The World’s Shortest lead climbing

Covered from rain: Yes

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Notes: While not an ideal place to do actual bouldering without a pad, the holds and angles make traversing here surprisingly resistant. Good endurance training, just watch out for the spinners!

The short nature of the wall makes no sense for actual lead climbing but does make it a good place to practice basic outdoor lead climbing skills such as clipping, rappelling and cleaning in a relatively safe setting. But don’t actually take a lead fall here — as the wall tops out around 4m, you have a good chance of hitting either the ground or your hapless belayer.

Posted by Danger on

Mar 29th, 2012

Notes: This climbing wall is in family-friendly FuHe sports park, which gives it a nice neighborly atmosphere. Trash cans and places to sit are plentiful. During the day a lot of kids play in the area and will come and try their hands at the wall. We recommend coming later in the day around sunset when parents will generally start taking their kids home.

A few holds are loose but the walls are in generally good condition.

There are stairs that go behind the wall and let you access the anchors, so if you don’t want to lead climb you could set up a top rope.

This place is ok but it’s not a big wall so there’s not a lot of “replay value”

Posted by Danger on

Jan 7th, 2013

Description: A fairly well designed and maintained University wall. Please contact the NCHU Mountain Club to use. The Wall has vertical face on the back.

Type of Climbing: Lead(12m), Top rope(anchors accessible by stairs)

Covered from Rain: No

Lighted at Night: Yes

Hours: Monday, Thursday 7pm-10pm. Saturday 2pm-6pm

Notes: This university climbing wall is open to the public as long as you get permission fom the NCHU Mountain Club. Since it’s a university wall, if students or climbers from the mountain club are there, they have priority. Please be respectful of the university environment and students.

A lot of Tunghai climbers also go to B1. We recommend taichung climbers interested in lead climbing here to either come on Wednesday nights, or go to B1 to meet other taichung climbers, and you will probably be able to come outside of the official hours.

This is a university wall so please be mindful and respectful of students around you. The Mountain club meets here regularly so if you see them please give them, and any other university students, priority.

Hualien Climbing Walls

Posted by Danger on

Dec 18th, 2012

Directions: The wall is in a former theater behind an old gym by the track. Please check the map link provided above.

Type of Climbing: Lead Climbing/top roping) up to 6m , plus a wicked roof climb spanning the entrance of the gym.

Description: Short but well built gym with a killer roof climb. This is a school gym so please get in touch with the Dong Hwa University Mountain club before climbing here.

Covered from the Rain: Yes.

Lighted at night: Yes.

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Notes:

This is a university wall so please be mindful and respectful of students around you. The Mountain club meets here regularly so if you see them please give them, and any other university students, priority.

Kaohsiung Climbing Walls

Posted by Danger on

May 31st, 2012

Description: Walls are built by Entreprises and of international competition quality. Has a Speed Climbing wall, as well as a separate bouldering area.

Covered from the Rain: Yes

Hours：Weekdays 6:30pm-12 midnight. Weekends “all day”, although on weekends, it’s best to check with Microrock before going to make sure people will be there.

Pricing: $100 per time, or Membership(half year) – Contact The MicroRock climbing club as per below!

Notes: This wall is maintained by Microrock Climbing Club and you should contact them to use it. Because their main website is in Chinese, it may be wise to try sending a message to Steven Chen or Alec Lin on the MicroRock Facebook group